What's in the box?

Is this not a wonderful box? I wish I could say I'd picked it up for a farthing but it was a very indulgent early Christmas present from Andy, spotted by me, bought by him, half fainting as he paid for it in a lovely but somewhat pricey vintage shop which has opened in town.

I fell in love with it and knew exactly what I would do with it.

It is actually an old 'Betty's of Harrogate' box, though I am not sure if it contained chocolates as it is fairly large. Probably it held an assortment of teas, biscuits and other dainties. But now it is my bird box.

I have been persevering with my primitive geese and have finally sorted the pattern out. I can't claim it's been easy getting back into sewing - such a clunky way of making something, piece by piece, after the flow of needle felting. But I do like working with nice textiles.

I hope to have these and a very small selection of new needle felt designs in my Etsy shop in about two weeks time - after three months of being out of business with my arm being out of order, I need to get into the swing of things again.

Honk honk! (Sang the seven blind geese).

No time to honk!

Not only geese come in threes; the planets span against us and we had a sprained ankle (Andy, from cricket, but recovered now), chest x-rays (me, hopefully nothing to worry about) and a persistent furball (Pumpkin, who is now bright as a button since I spent all my goose-doll earnings on his vet's bill).

It has been a never ending list of - cottage-cleaning, potato harvesting, blight-ridden tomato bed clearing and subsequent green tomato chutney making, jam making, cricket weekends and somehow finding and extra hour or two every day as it has been decreed by my young, not-exactly-svelte-himself doctor that I need to lose a stone. So the surrounding villages have been having me as a regular visitor as I cycle the pounds off. My normal work schedule has been thrown to the winds and I am trying to frantically rein it in. I do not consider three new geese to be an acceptable week's work. Noses will be pressed to the grindstone, if I can summon the energy.

(So yes, for the people who missed the last lot,
I have three new geese for sale, on Etsy)

Three Little Geese

As featured on Cuteable - thank you very much!

And this is where they started - from the comfort of our four-poster bed, on our Devon holiday.






Well, almost. The bed had muslin drapes. One night when they were pulled round and we were sharing a bottle of wine, I noticed an interesting gap between them. Which turned into these long necked bird-like creatures.






I've been putting off tackling the business of making my own patterns for years. And I managed to put it off for a few more months. But I finally knuckled down, transferred the sketches into a photo programme, did a bit of flipping and produced a rough paper pattern.






With a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth, I cobbled together a rough dummy, which seemed to work. I was most proud of my gusset - I would never have been content to just sew together two bits of material, because I do like to make life difficult for myself.






A year ago I bought some poplin, and actually got round to tea-dying it for a nice aged effect. It has since been languishing, neatly folded, on my neglected sewing machine. I meant to make geese from it, but never did. Time to iron it out...





...and get cutting, with Andy's little nan's scissors. She's no longer with us, but I still use her sewing equipment, much of which she inherited from Andy's great-grandmother.





My old Jones machine groaned with subdued excitement (or was that me?) as I unlocked it and wiped off the dust. I breathed in that special antique sewing machine smell of old oil, cold iron and memories.





What was in the little side drawer? Nothing too interesting. Essence of haberdashery.






I had a momentary panic trying to remember how to thread up. Miraculously, I still have an original manual, which also helped me sort out the tension in minutes.





Time to bite the bullet. I got going. There is something very comforting about using an old sewing machine. They seem to stay in excellent working order despite years of non-use and my Jones clicked and clattered happily, so pleased to be working again and eager to be of use. We hummed together.




I did used to be able to sew. I learned the basics at my mother's knee, and went on to incorporate embroidery and patchwork in my illustration degree. It got put to one side, as a non-money earner, in the days before Etsy and the craft revolution. Things kept coming back. Me and the new goose got intimate.





My studio floor is littered with re-discovered fabric stash. The big bag of sheeps wool which I bought specifically for this purpose (well over a year ago) has been broached. I am exploring the gentle art of stuffing. I've gone for a primitive look, which is not a style that is common in the UK. But I like making lumpy old things, and they are not a million miles away from my artworks. Which was the whole purpose of it all.





Now we are three. I am not sticking hard and fast to the pattern, as I want each one to have a little personality of its own.






And with a shameless plug (because I could do with earning this week's grocery money) I've put two of them up for sale in my Etsy shop...this one -

SOLD - See her new home HERE

SOLD

I'm keeping the other one for me, how radical is that!?

UPDATE - thank you to the two lovely people who snapped my Gooseys up! I'll be making some more next week, but for now I must return to the slower pace of needle felting and clear some orders.

Honk for geese!

I've been sewing again, for the first time in over twelve years. My antique Jones machine is in perfect working order, if a little dusty. My own 'machinery' though, is less well oiled. It has been what you might call a bit of a battle, but I am getting there, slowly. I need to invest in a 'Quick Unpick'.

Further pictures of the uphill struggle to re-discover my textile roots to come...I used to be able to do this, once upon a time.